IDAY'S VISION A world where all barriers to
education are eliminated and African Child and youth have access to quality
basic eduction.
IDAY'S MISSION
Promote policies and practices to achieve the six objectives of the
Dakar Framework by 2015 in Africa, emphasizing pre-school initiation, a full
cycle of formal primary education and literacy for youngsters
HOW WE WORK Networking - Empowerment - Advocacy
and supports the empowerment of African CSOs.
IDAY members gather each year for the
International Day of the African Child on June 16.
37 years ago (1976 -2013) in Soweto, South
Africa, thousands of black school children took to the streets in a march more
than half a mile long, to protest the inferior quality of their education and
to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young
boys and girls were short down; and in the two weeks of protest that followed,
more than a hundred people were killed and more than a thousand were injured.
To honour the memory of those killed and the courage of all those who marched,
the Day of the African Child has been celebrated on 16 June every year since
1991, when it was first initialized by the then organization of African Unity,
now the African Union. The day draws attention to the lives of African Children
today.
IDAY-Ghana (International Day of the African
Child and Youth), celebrate this day by focusing on Teacher Absenteeism, girl's
child education and Raise awareness on school dropout
Today, the African child faces huge challenges to
which they contribute very little, which includes the falling educational
standards, increasingly declining of social infrastructures, unjustifiable
political instability, conflict and refugee environments; inadequate economic
infrastructure and trade injustices. They have been forced to live their lives
as adults as they are; forced into child labour, sex slaves, child-parenting as
elderly AIDS orphaned children take care their younger siblings, the plight of
child soldiers, the worst of child labour, have compelled brutalized and deeply
traumatized children by their experiences to suffer post-traumatic stress
disorders. Most children spend their school going age struggling to find meals
that fill their hungry stomachs but provide little nutrition. Their plight is
worsened by the breakdown of the external family system and adverse effects of
trade injustices which has compelled most parents and guardians to loose their
jobs and livelihoods.
More children are trapped in abject of drop out
from school and girls are denied of basic/primary education, the society in
general believes that the girl child is not as important as the male child. The
common belief is that female after all her education will end up in the kitchen
by cooking for her husband. In our society boys are given the opportunity to
learn more than girls. For example, the female work to sell water, oranges,
toffees and other things by the road side for the family to enable them to earn
money and to take care of the male child's education. The female child is left
with fewer opportunities for any formal\par education. The girls have to take
care of more house chores like washing of bowls, cooking, cleaning and sweeping
than the boys who only study, play and eat. The boys are able to take their
education seriously than the girls because boys do nothing apart from studying.
The girls get tired and are not able to concentrate in the classroom and
sometimes sleep in the classroom whilst the teacher is teaching. This also
reflects adversely upon the performance of the girls as they tend to drop out
from school. We have observed that when the children are in the basic school
the enrollment of the females is more than the males but as they climb the
academic ladder the number of females continues to drop. This is due to lack of
parental guidance and sex education in the home.
In Africa only 14% of children have access to
preschool initiation as compared to a worldwide average of 40%. About 31
million children aged between 6 and 12 have no access to a full cycle of
primary education and 43 million youngsters aged less than 24 are illiterate.
Contrary to the trend on other continents, their number is increasing, thus
making the issue an even greater challenge requiring an urgent and
comprehensive response
We demanded;
1.
An end to child exploitation
especially child trafficking, child labour, child soldier, harmful traditional
and cultural practices
2.
A proactive Continental
integration process with the potency to defend the rights of the African child.
3.
Call for community libraries
and provision of electricity and computers in all the schools across the
country to facilitate the study of Information Communication Technology (ICT)
as well as inculcate reading habit in children
Education is a key tool in addressing poverty issues and ensuring the
achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
For further clarification please contact Kenneth
Nana Amoateng, IDAY-Ghana –Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of Abibimman
Foundation on : Tel-0244023651 /0303213918 or email: kamoateng@iday.org,amoatengken@gmail.com,
www.iday.org ,www.abibimmanfoundation.org
No comments:
Post a Comment